Hi everyone, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. One of the things I find myself saying to leaders over and over, week after week, month after month, is the following:

Tango is a slow dance.

S-L-O-W.

For many reasons, this idea doesn't seem to compute with a sizable majority of leaders. One of the biggest complaints followers express to me again and again is that dancing Tango with many leaders feels like hanging on for dear life on an out-of-control merry-go-round.

"They just won't stop running," one of my female students told me just yesterday.

Today, I want to look at why this epidemic of perpetual motion and speed seems to be so entrenched in our Tango community, and offer a suggestion or two about how this might be changed to reflect more accurately what I think Tango is really all about.

In the "Western" ballroom dance tradition (by which I mean the European/American tradition) most of us generally think of dancing in terms of continuous movement around a dance floor. A beginner leader here in this country almost always maintains the a priori belief that when he learns how to dance, he'll be flying around the floor in the manner of a dance such as Viennese Waltz.

Furthermore, most Tango teachers aid and abet this belief by having their students walk continuously around the dance floor together without stopping as a primary exercise right from lesson one.

"Leaders, try to take nice, big steps; followers, don't slow down; keep it going. Aren't we making great progress?"

Unfortunately, for a beginning Tango student, continuous walking in this way usually results in little more than a feeling of being completely out of control. It can be fun; it can be exhilarating in the moment; it can serve as a counterpoint to the hesitant plodding and tiny, furtive steps which most partners take during their early attempts at movement. But the ultimate effect of this approach (I strongly believe) is that it teaches leaders to run, and it teaches followers to hang on for dear life. And nobody learns to balance at all.

Unlike European/American ballroom dancing, Tango does not involve continuous, non-stop motion. Tango is a dance, which combines movement and non-movement in almost equal measure. Sometimes, we go; sometimes, we stop. At least, this is the way the dance evolved during the late 1930s as a result of changes in the music (another discussion for another time). This being the case, the question becomes: How can we put the brakes (literally) on this misconception of what modern Tango is all about?

The answer, I believe, is to teach beginning students the value of learning how to stop.

In my own classes, I begin with the idea that the essence of Tango is found in a single step -- not only for followers, but for leaders as well. The step (whether it's forward, backward, or to the side) has a beginning (the lead/follow), a middle (the traveling through space) and -- perhaps most importantly -- an end (the balance). I underscore for the leader as well as for the follower the crucial importance of learning to stop and actually paying careful attention to the balance at the end of each and every step. This approach often confuses students who think of dancing as running; but once they've been able to incorporate the notion of stopping -- or at least pausing -- between steps, their dancing automatically becomes far more "Tango-like" than it might otherwise have been.

Tango in the Castle IV

Strictly Tango NYC 8th Anniversary

TANGO IN THE CASTLE IV presented by Sergio Segura Productions at Morningside Castle, 100 Claremont Ave, NYC, Thursday Nov. 5th at 6:30 pm to 1 am. Special cocktail reception with opera singers for VIP ticket holders at 6:30 pm to 7:45 pm. This event celebrates the anniversary of Strictly Tango NYC, and includes live music of Pedro Giraudo Trio and dance performances by world-renowned tango artists Leandro Caparelli and Sol Alzamora, Orlando Reyes and Adriana Salgado and the special participation of Sidney Grant and Claudio Vidal. Celebrated vocalist Mariela Marco will also perform. Following the performances guests will be invited to dance to the live orchestra and a celebrated NYC DJ, Adam Hoopengarden.

Limited tickets with a 40% discount ends

It always sells out

11/2

The following folks helped set up, break down and clean up before and after the milonga. Without them, there would be no Firehouse Tango.

• Steve Maisch
• ​​Steve Turi and Lynn Gross 
• Tsipoyra Sartan
• ​Hilda and Rafael